2.0b7: TVShows Manual (part 2: Preferences)
In our last post, we explained how subscriptions work, and how you can add, manage or delete subscriptions. Today, we’re explaining the options in the Preferences tab, and some other cool things.
This is the Preferences tab, where you can configure almost everything in TVShows. Under General Settings, you have the option to turn on and off the menu bar icon. This icon gives you direct access to some of TVShows features without having to open the interface (we’ll see that later).
Then we have the Download Preferences. There you can select the frequency you want TVShows to check for new episodes and where you want it to download the torrent files (in the next version, you will be able to make TVShows save each show in its own folder inside this general one!).
We get to two interesting preferences:
Automatically open each file after download: it isn’t about the video files (remember, TVShows doesn’t download actual videos, only torrents), but the torrent file. This option is enabled by default, and it’s the best way to completely automate the download process: TVShows will open the torrent file with your default torrent manager (we love Transmission, but the choice is all yours). You would only need to disable this option if you don’t usually have a broadband connection (the torrent files are tiny, the videos aren’t) or if you want to choose when you download the videos for any other reason.
Download HD versions by default: this is the default quality setting, but changing it doesn’t affect shows you’ve already subscribed to (you have to change it show by show in the Subscription window, as we explained in the previous post). It’s just a way to save some clicks if you want most of the shows in HD: when you go to the Add Show window, the HD setting will be enabled or disabled by default depending on the global setting, but you can change it every time you want.
Below you can enable or disable some Growl notifications (there are more in the Growl PrefPane) and check for TVShows updates.
The About tab lists all contributors to the project (thank you everyone!), and it contains links to our website and Twitter account and a donation button.
The “View Logs” button is important for troubleshooting. If you think TVShows is not working as it should, please take a look at the log. If you don’t understand it, don’t worry, you can always send it to us and we’ll take a look. You can manually send an e-mail to support(at)tvshowsapp.com or use the “Submit Feedback” button at the left (in this case, please include your e-mail address so we can reply).
The “Submit Feedback” button and the On/Off slider appear in all tabs. The slider allows you to enable or disable the background process.
And finally, if you just don’t like TVShows (sorry about that! We’d like to hear your thoughts, maybe next version will have that awesome feature you missed in the current version!), you can click the “Uninstall” button. Please be aware that you may need to manually remove the PrefPane after uninstalling. Just go to System Preferences, and if TVShows is still there, right-click it and select “Remove TVShows Preference Pane”.
This is the menubar icon (you can enable or disable it in the Preferences tab). It allows some basic features without having to open TVShows (check for new episodes, see when was the last time the background process checked for new episodes, enable or disable the background process), and it provides quick access to all TVShows tabs and feedback submission.
And that’s it for the 7th beta! We’re soon releasing another beta, we’ll tell you about its new features when it’s out!
